Ford Fiesta (2008 -) Review

Review by Dan Harrison
on 01 Sep 2008

Last Updated: 02 Sep 2014

5

The Ford Fiesta is a small car with big ideas. As well as being stylish and good to drive, it borrows many innovations from larger Fords, such as keyless entry, Bluetooth hands-free phone compatibility and a system to prevent mis-fuelling.

Summary

Parkers Rating:

5 out of 5

The Ford Fiesta is a small car with big ideas. As well as being stylish and good to drive, it borrows many innovations from larger Fords, such as keyless entry, Bluetooth hands-free phone compatibility and a system to prevent mis-fuelling.

The Fiesta also has a few tricks of its own - it'll play MP3 files from a USB stick through the stereo, comes with a knee airbag as standard, plus has a dash inspired by a mobile phone.

Plenty of choice

There’s also the choice for customers to pick between the three-door and more practical five –door models. Despite this, it hasn’t betrayed its small-car roots.

It's better value than ever, cheaper to buy and costs less to run than the old car - there's even an ECOnetic model that means big savings in annual tax and company car tax. Overall it's one of the finest small cars you can buy.

Engine line-up

There’s a wide selection of petrol and diesel engines to pick from, while an economical ECOnetic model is also on offer. The petrol range starts with the 1.25-litre, which is available with two different power outputs. Though this can feel a little laboured when getting up to speed, it’s an excellent engine for use around towns and tight city streets.

The diesel choice includes a 1.5-litre and the 1.6-litre version version used in the ECOnetic – a 1.4-litre diesel was discontinued in 2012. While the diesel engines offer more low-down power and don’t feel as strained as the petrol counterparts, they only make real sense in the Fiesta if owners are going to do higher mileage and motorway journeys.

Equipment and trims

As well as wide variety of engines and choice of three- or five-door cars to pick from, the Fiesta is also available in a choice of five different equipment grades – Studio, Style, Zetec, Titanium, Titanium X - and manual or automatic gearboxes but some trims have been dropped or replaced since the car was introduced in 2008.

Mid-life refresh

In 2012 the Fiesta got an update with a changes to the front grille and updated rear lights along with the introduction of Ford’s SYNC voice-activated connectivity system. Active City Stop that brakes the car automatically at low speeds if it senses a collision is imminent also made its debut.

The Fiesta became first Ford car in Europe to feature MyKey – a system that allows parents of teenage drivers to limit both the car’s speed and the volume of its audio system, along with muting the stereo if a driver’s seatbelt isn’t being worn. Each driver has a key which is programmed to tell the car to initiate or switch off various safety systems as required. This has the potential to not only keep the teens safe but to also prevent them from causing unnecessary noise pollution in the local area.

So, is this the best Ford Fiesta ever and can it keep the many competitors like the Peugeot 208 and Volkswagen Polo at bay? Read the full Ford Fiesta review to find out.